U.S. 'Secret War' Expands Globally

by Karen DeYoung and Greg Jaffe

Beneath its commitment to soft-spoken diplomacy and beyond the combat zones
of Afghanistan and Iraq, the Obama administration has significantly expanded
a largely secret U.S. war against al-Qaeda and other radical groups,
according to senior military and administration officials.

Special Operations forces have grown both in number and budget, and are
deployed in 75 countries, compared with about 60 at the beginning of last
year. In addition to units that have spent years in the Philippines and
Colombia, teams are operating in Yemen and elsewhere in the Middle East,
Africa and Central Asia.

Commanders are developing plans for increasing the use of such forces in
Somalia, where a Special Operations raid last year killed the alleged head
of al-Qaeda in East Africa. Plans exist for preemptive or retaliatory
strikes in numerous places around the world, meant to be put into action
when a plot has been identified, or after an attack linked to a specific
group.

The surge in Special Operations deployments, along with intensified CIA
drone attacks in western Pakistan, is the other side of the national
security doctrine of global engagement and domestic values President Obama
released last week.

One advantage of using "secret" forces for such missions is that they rarely
discuss their operations in public. . . .

The Obama administration has rejected the constitutional executive authority
claimed by Bush and has based its lethal operations on the authority
Congress gave the president in 2001 to use "all necessary and appropriate
force against those nations, organizations, or persons" he determines
"planned, authorized, committed, or aided" the Sept.
11 attacks.

Many of those currently being targeted, Bellinger said, "particularly in
places outside Afghanistan," had nothing to do with the 2001 attacks.